A Sinful Messiah
by Strife Atreyu
Summary: Peace was something that could never be achieved. Humans were too prejudiced - too spiteful to accept any utopia other than the one they envision. He lacked the strength to match their anger, and had long since given up on overcoming that hate...so instead, even if it was just a handful of people, "I'll protect the ones I cherish."
1. Beginning of a Disaster

**Yeah...so...I've basically given up on Sins of a Messiah.**

**HAVE MERCY!**

**Whew...I'm not yet dead...okay...time for an explanation!**

**I had originally made Sins of Messiah on a whim. Absolutely no thought on the story, and the plot whatsoever. Hell, even the characters were mostly made on the spot. I started to think ahead somewhere in the middle of it...but by then, the story was just...ruined. For instance, the scene where I had let Eric live. What was the point of it? I've no clue about anything that has to do with Eric, and had basically saved him only to let him fade somewhere into oblivion. If I had, and I know how heartless this sounds, let him die, then I could have at least used that as a way for Erina and Wolf to interact. You cannot believe how many ideas I had.  
**

**A second example would be the writing. I mean, I know some were at least decently made, but the majority of it was just...ugh...**

**Summing it up, though I did like a few parts of it, there was just too much bad for the good to overshadow, and I regrettably now announce that I will discontinue it. Whether or not I take it off the net is still being weighed.  
**

**So this is where this story comes in. I'm re-writing everything, and well, I'm just basically hoping it won't blow up in my face like the firecracker did with my cousin. It wasn't pretty, so I'd very much like to avoid that.**

**Summary:**

**Peace was something that could never be achieved. Humans were too prejudiced - too spiteful to accept any utopia other than the one they envision. He lacked the strength to overcome their anger, and had long since given up on overcoming that hate...so instead, even if it was just a handful of people, "I'll protect the ones I cherish."**

_**Story start-o~!**_

* * *

**_Blood for blood..._**

_**Hatred for hatred...**_

_**Evil for evil...**_

_**The cycle of carnage...ends and begins...**_

_**Never ceasing in its path...alongside eternity.**_

_**XxXxX**_

_It was so cold today._

_The freezing winter had come, cloaking the once grassy forests in a land of snow, and hiding piles of frozen water into the branches of the slumbering trees as they waited for the coming of spring to once more bear fruit. The animals slept or burrowed within their den, trying to keep their bodies as warm as possible to stave off the frost's lethal hold._

_A girl, dressed in appropriate clothing and with her long, neon pink hair tied up in a ponytail by a white ribbon, wandered the forest around her home without any objective apart from stretching her legs._

_Kanon knelt next to a flower, looking at the plant with innocent wonder that only a child's eyes could possibly hold. The small, almost withered flower had been dreadfully out of season, and there hadn't been sign of the sun for nearly a week so it was no surprise that it was nearly ready to die. The young girl of twelve stared at the small plant as it so desperately tried to survive, hopeless as it may be._

_The small pinkette dug her mitten covered hands into the snow around the flower..._

_And dug..._

_And dug..._

_And dug..._

_She didn't know how long she had spent there, but by the end of it her fingers felt as frozen as ice cubes. The flower itself though had a good radius of dry earth around it, and the young girl that had been the one responsible for it smiled happily at her handiwork._

_Kanon stood, gave one last wide smile to the flower then turned, and walked back to her house._

_**XxXxX**_

_The small twelve year old pouted at the flower, covered again by snow as it was. Kanon sighed...and once more began to dig with her little hands._

_**XxXxX**_

_The pinkette grinned victoriously at the pile of snow that once more covered the earth around the flower. Without another word, the girl gripped the shovel in her hands and began to take off the snow._

_**XxXxX**_

_The flower was looking better, she noticed. It's once pale leaves had started to turn back to a healthy shade of green. The petals had started to regain their brilliance, as if life had once more been bred into the plant, and the stem had started to stand straighter instead of slouch like an old man with back problems._

_Kanon beamed and gently stroked the flower's bulb as if it were a pet._

_**XxXxX**_

_There was a boy there...and he was bleeding..._

_Kanon peeked over the bush she had hidden herself in, staring curiously at the spiky haired boy that laid on his back, right beside the flower she had been nursing for the past few weeks._

_The child's white shirt had been drenched in his own crimson lifeblood, parts of the cloth on the arm and abdomen area torn to pieces. The blood pooled around his prone body, staining the pure white snow with a deep red that turned some parts of it pink. A sheathed tanto rested beside the boy, gripped tightly in the hand that wasn't trying to hold back the bleeding in his torso. His breathing was weak, and Kanon could barely see his hot breath in the frosty weather. Blue cerulean eyes were half-lidded, almost like the boy was sleepy._

_Her mom had said people don't wake up if they go to sleep in places that are too cold. Kanon was honestly scared of the blood and the boy's weapon with every sense of rationality she had telling her to run back to her parents and let them deal with it. But her house was a thirty minute walk from here, and it would take twice that long for a back and forth trip. She didn't know what she could do, but her conscience wouldn't let her be if she just let him die without even trying to help._

_Strengthening her nerves, the young pinkette stepped out of the bush. Snow crunched noisily underfoot. The noise caught the attention of the near-death youth, and the boy quickly grabbed the handle of the sword that lay beside him, drawing his blade and pointing it at her with a wild and, at the same time, desperate look in his eyes._

"_Who-?!"_

"_Eep!" _

_The boy must have been expecting something else, and looked surprised at the small 'eep' that arose from her throat. Before he could say anything more, an excruciating pain came back to the spiky haired child's injury. His sword dropped out of his suddenly limp fingers and embedded itself into the snow, along with its dark-blue scabbard. With a weak groan, the young child fell to his knees and landed face down on the snow, unmoving._

_Kanon ran to his side, kneeling next to the boy and shaking him, trying to wake his cold and unresponsive body._

_**XxXxX**_

_The winter sun peeked gloomily over the snow cloaked branches of the forest, yet the birds of the trees had no motivation to sing their songs, and had instead preferred to keep quiet and sleep through the frost covered land. The light of the morning filtered in through the tightly shut windows of a house within the forest, drenching the small boy who occupied the room in a golden glow that was of the same shade of his messy scalp._

_With a faint creak, the doorway of the bedroom opened. Kanon took a careful peek into the room, as if there was a monster of the foulest levels in its confines instead of the strange, injured blonde that rested, tucked under the white covers of the sole bed in the room._

_The pinkette watched the boy's sleeping face for a moment, staring at every little detail, from the little furrow in his eyebrow to the slow rise and fall of his chest._

_Taking a sharp, nervous deep breath, the twelve year old girl took a soft step into the room, passing the doorway and noting that the room was colder than the hallway, or any of the other rooms she normally spent time in. Kanon shivered, trying to ignore the sensation of pins and needles as her bare feet skidded across the cold floor, every step feeling like she was dipping her foot down a half-frozen river._

"_Your door is too loud..." the words made her stop in her tracks, "Would you like me to fix it?"_

_The weak, yet audible voice that came from the young boy's mouth startled his fellow youngling, Kanon releasing a sudden and indignant yelp as the boy's sky blue orbs fluttered open, staring at the ceiling with a casual nonchalance that seemed more natural than reflexive._

"_I-I'm sorry! I didn't think you were awake yet and I...uh..."_

_Reduced to a gibbering mess, the pinkette couldn't do much but stare at the boy's strangely placid face. The blonde pushed himself up to a sitting position, the covers falling away and revealing the slighty red tinted bandages covering his torso. He winced, his body reminding him that he was still in no condition to move so suddenly._

"_A-ah! Don't get up!" Kanon insisted, covering the rest of the space between the bed he laid on and herself in her worry, "You're still hurt. You need to rest."_

"_I'll be fine," the boy replied, throwing off the sheets._

_The spiky haired child grabbed and threw on his newly cleaned and stitched shirt from the tabletop of the nightstand that rested beside the head of the bed. Thankfully, they had left his pants on him, so he wouldn't have to go through the trouble of finding it. His rubber shoes, resting somewhere under the bed, was snatched and placed on his feet, despite the lack of socks on either foot._

"_Where's my sword?"_

"_Huh?"_

_The boy turned those piercing blue eyes at her, "My sword. The short sword I had with me."_

_Kanon's eyes darted once to the cabinet in the room, and the boy wasted no time in walking past her and opening the closet. He grabbed the sword that leaned on the back of the cabinet and gripped it firmly in his left hand, despite the girl in the room telling him to take it easy on a multiple basis._

"_H-hey!" Kanon pouted, "Quit ignoring me!"_

"_Hm?"_

_Those blue eyes turned to her again, and her voice stuck in her throat. Mouth gaping, Kanon clutched her hands to her chest, a sign of her usual timidity. The boy tilted his head to the side, questioningly._

"_Can you open that window?" the blonde suddenly asked._

_Too shaken by the sudden happenstance of things, the pinkette could only nod and open the windows in question. She sighed, and wondered why the boy even made such a strange request. You only open the door when it was hot after all, not when the outside was colder than the inside. Turning to ask him, she was unprepared for when the small blur of her fellow youngling flew past her and leaped straight out of the window._

_Kanon yelped, turned and raised a hand to stop him, although the effort was far too late – the blonde was already flying through the air._

_Her words, however, were of something else. She opened her mouth, and her brain developed the words of heartbreaking fact so fast, that even she was surprised by how smoothly she had understood the situation._

"_We're on the second floor!"_

_**CRASH!**_

_**XxXxX**_

_Lying face down on the white snow was an unmoving blonde haired child._

_It should be noted that this child had 'accidentally' jumped straight out of his saving grace's second floor window, and had done a superb example of a face plant right into a moderately thick patch of snow that thankfully left him moderately unharmed...well, as unharmed as he was from the time before he leaped then looked._

_Kanon knelt next to the blonde, staring at the boy's face partially revealed face. She could make out a red tint in his normally pale shade of skin, but just to make sure she questioned him, "...Are you dead?"_

_The blonde raised one of his hands and made a thumbs-down._

"_Do you feel stupid?"_

_A thumbs-up._

"_Will you promise not to do that again if I take you back upstairs?"_

_The blonde seemed to be having an inner conflict. Finally, after moments of looking at his interestingly spiky hair, Kanon watched his thumb turn horizontal._

"_Is that supposed to mean something like 'no promises but I'll try'?"_

_A thumbs-up._

_Kanon sighed._

"_Close enough,"_

_**XxXxX**_

_The boy splayed himself out at the bed the moment he was close enough to let the white covered sheets catch him in their embrace. His arms spread out and his feet dangled off the edge of the mattress, his soles lifted inches off the ground while the balls of his feet grazed the wooden floor. Kanon sat beside him, her ponytail swaying slightly from an intangible wind. The pinkette frowned and, with her small index finger, poked the boy's side, eliciting a strangled yelp as she coincidentally placed a painful amount of pressure on one of his wounds._

_The boy glared at her, and she stuck out her tongue. Her parents had told her to be polite to others, but this child was so...hard to get that it came to the point of annoyance._

"_What's your name?"_

"_Wolf."_

"_...Wolf..." Kanon repeated the strange name. The girl remained silent for a second as her brain tried to make sure she had heard right. The girl giggled when she looked at the laid out boy in front of her, "Really? Aheh."_

"_What's so funny?" Wolf asked, though his gaze was still pasted on the ceiling._

"_It's a weird name..."_

"_It's not weird," The spiky haired child embarrassedly defended._

"_It is. If someone was named Wolf, I would imagine a really big husky guy with muscles on his muscles. But your face is soft like a girl's, and your arms are barely bigger than mine. Why'd your parents name you that?"_

"_I was named after my hometown..."_

"_What's it called? Your town, I mean."_

"_Bahay ng Lobo."_

"_Er...excuse me?"_

"_It's a different language. If you translate it, the literal translation would mean something like 'home of the wolf'...but my mom told me, 'that's a mouthful – easier to call it Wolf's Home'." The boy turned his sky blue eyes to Kanon's own sapphire orbs, looking at the girl's iris with a blank melancholy._

"_So that's why she named you Wolf?" Kanon tilted her head._

_The blonde nodded, "And what about you? My oh so gracious angel." The way he said angel was filled with so much sarcasm that somebody had to be tone deaf to recognize it as a compliment rather than a verbal jab._

_The pinkette puffed her cheeks in response, "I'm Kanon Daiba."_

_Wolf scoffed, "And my name is weird, she says."_

_The blonde turned away from his companion, lying on his side as he faced away from the gibbering girl._

_The little pink ankle-biter glared at the back of the blonde youth, "You... t-take that back!"_

"_No way, cannon diver."_

"_I-it's Kanon Daiba! Get it right!"_

"_Make me, canyon hiker."_

"_That's not even close to my name!"_

"_Of course it is, Denden Mushi."_

_..._

_..._

_..._

_Hey, where's the retort?_

_Sniff..._

"_My name isn't..." Sniff. "My name- hic- isn't..." Sniff_

_Oh, fuck._

_With an uncanny sixth sense of danger that had been obtained through years of caring for a little sister, panic bells exploded like a supernova in the young boy's head. The blonde child shot up from his resting spot, ruffling the sheets and sending it to the floor in his rush to face the pinkette. Turning to the teary eyed girl beside him, he desperately flailed his hands in an attempt to apologize and keep the waterworks from rising and drowning him in his own inexcusable guilt at having made a girl cry._

"_KANON! Kanon Daiba! Don't cry. Please don't cry!"_

_The girl rubbed her eyes as a river started to pour._

"_Waa...uwaaa..." the girl weakly sobbed._

"_Oh, come on...I'm sorry." The blonde wrapped his arms around her, "Just...stop crying...er...please? I'm seriously sorry..."_

_Sniff, "Kanon Daiba."_

"_Right," Wolf nodded._

"_Ka-non Da-i-ba..." She emphasized every syllable._

"_Uh-huh," the blonde replied._

_Sniff..._

"_...I'm okay now..."_

_Wolf relinquished his embrace, scooting away from the pinkette in obvious embarrassment._

"_You must think I'm weird...a twelve year old girl crying at a little teasing." The girl rubbed at her eye._

"_There's nothing wrong with crying...everyone does it once in a while."_

_Kanon smiled at the blonde, "Even you?"_

_Wolf sighed, and begrudgingly nodded, "I was a crybaby back when I was younger. Practically couldn't shut my mouth whenever I wanted something and didn't have it."_

_The girl giggled, "We're in the same boat then..."_

_..._

_..._

_..._

"_Hey...Kanon?"_

"_Hm?"_

"_You don't come out of the forest very often, do you?"_

"_H-how...?" the girl looked incredulously at him before her expression morphed into a suspicious glare, "Are you a stalker?"_

"_What? No!" Wolf defended once more, "I've just never seen you before...and I can at least recognize most of the faces in the ghettos."_

"_Mmm..." Kanon began to absently swing her legs, "It's not surprising, I guess. I get sick really easy...so mommy and daddy don't usually let me go out. I rarely ever come out of the forest...so I've only seen the ghettos a few times."_

"_You stay here all day, every day?"_

"_No...I have a way to sneak out without them knowing...at least, for a while. It's why I was able to find you in the forest."_

"_You must have gotten scolded for that...I'm sorry."_

"_H-hey! You make it sound like I should have just let you die rather than take a scolding." Kanon pouted, shoving her face right into Wolf and forcing the blonde to reel back in alarm, "You haven't even said any thanks, yet."_

_The boy sighed, "I give you my eternal gratitude, master."_

_Believe it or not, sarcasm was his way of saying 'thanks for saving my life'._

"_Hmhmhm!" the pinkette chuckled, "Bask in my glory!"_

_The girl laughed, and Wolf rolled his eyes, trying and failing to hide the small kick up of his lips._

"_By the way," the pinkette's half-playful banter ceased for a moment as she turned a curious expression to the blonde beside her, "What were you doing in the forest, anyway? And what happened to you? You were bleeding a lot when I found you." _

_Wolf cringed._

"_Did you get into a fight?"_

"_Uh..."_

"_Mommy said your injury was caused by a gun. Hey, what happened?"_

"_Nothing you need to worry about," Wolf replied._

_The girl pouted, "Come on, tell me!"_

"_No."_

"_Please?"_

"_Absolutely not."_

"_...What if I called you handsome?"_

"_What?"_

"_Strong yet silent?"_

"_No!"_

"_How 'bout cute?"_

'_What is up with this girl?'_

"_How the hell am I classified as cute?"_

"_Well, your hair. Those big spikes on top of your head makes you look a bit like a wolf. So you're cute."_

_Wolf's eye twitched. The pinkette smiled innocently at him...at least until he flicked her forehead, "Don't call me cute."_

_Kanon harrumphed, rubbing the lightly stinging skin on her fore whilst glaring with puffed cheeks at the blonde youth, "Fine, then! You're fat, you smell and your breath smells like you've never touched a toothbrush."_

"_Oi, what the hell was that for?!"_

"_Since you don't appreciate a girl complimenting your looks, I'll insult them instead."_

_Before the argument could escalate in something more...violent...both of them were interrupted by the sound of a bell – not unlike those hand bells you would once find in churches – followed by four words that immediately had the guest of the house nearly drooling in expectation and sudden realization of a new dilemma that was of great priority to any male in existence._

"_Kanon! Breakfast is ready!"_

_**Grooooowwwwl...**_

_Wolf was seriously hungry..._

_Both of the ankle-biters turned their gaze to the door, attracted by the voice of a woman that was likely the mother of the household. Kanon beamed, grabbed Wolf's hand and yanked the boy out of the spartan themed guest room, ignoring his indignant cry at the sudden lurch on his arm._

"_Come on! Mom's pancakes are considered to be a Daiba delicacy!"_

_Wolf remained silent. His legs moved in tandem to the stride of his companion as his eyes were glued on the girl's palm – pale, delicate fingers cradling his own calloused hands. A heat rose to his cheeks._

_He noted how warm it felt._

_**5 Years Later...**_

Johannes von Schiksal, director of the far-east branch a.k.a 'the den', stared down through the one way mirror, standing on one of the observatory rooms of a training room that had been secured for the whole day just for this purpose.

The room had a wide open space, easily a dozen or so meters in radius and with a ceiling that was twice as high. In the middle of the room, a contraption that had the ominous looks of a giant, hulking metal death trap rested, bolted in place. Part of the red cube was lifted by the mechanics in the pillars that pinned it to the floor, with a giant blade no normal human could possible wield visible beneath it.

That wasn't what Johannes' gaze had centered on, however. That particular honor went to the blonde teenager, casually propping onto the wall, arms crossed and head tilted down as to let his spiky bangs hide his eyes.

He was quite the lover of black, Schiksal noted. The boy wore a black and purple hoodie, a black pair of cargo pants, and a black and golden trimmed pair of boots. Contrary to his attire, his skin was pale, paler than just about anyone he had ever seen. Not chalk white, nor was he very tan. If he had to describe it, he was a bit below a newborn's skin color, and Johannes had to wonder if the teen wasn't some paranoid shut in that would regard sunlight as if it were acid, though he quickly threw that option out of the window. The teen below had a too straight and rigid posture (even leaning on the wall as he was) to have spent the better part of his life in front of a television or a computer.

Beside him, Sakaki chuckled, "Well, he certainly seems at home already."

Ignoring the doctor's non-humorous joke, Johannes replied, "How long has he been waiting there?"

Tsubaki spoke up, "Fifteen minutes,"

"Has he moved from that spot?" Sakaki asked,

"No," the Gods Eater advisor replied, "He came in through the doors, looked around the room then went to the wall and started to brood. Quite silent, this one. Let's hope he's someone who can at least work with a team."

"Well, we've kept him waiting long enough, don't you think?" Johannes interrupted, leaning forward and pressing on the intercom and speaking into the mike, "Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long,"

The boy made no response. Johannes raised an eyebrow.

"Now then, let me welcome you to humankind's last fortress: Fenrir."

Still nothing. Johannes was starting to think he was getting ignored, and Sakaki's lips had curled wider – a sign that he found the blatant disregard of his friend's words a bit comedic.

"I will now test your compatibility as a member of the Anit-Aragami Punitive Force, the God Eaters."

The blonde didn't even look up.

"Please try to...relax. You'll get – " the director cut himself off, lifting the finger off the intercom and glaring at the teen's unresponsive form through the glass in front of him, "For heaven's sake! Is he deaf?!"

Tsubaki checked her clipboard, "He has no record of any medical deficiencies, so I doubt it."

Sakaki chuckled again.

Johannes pressed a different intercom, "Hibari,"

"Yes?"

"Would you kindly enter training room A-4? The new recruit seems to be unresponsive to my words."

"Right away, sir."

A few moments passed, Johannes glaring with a thousand knives at the blonde below, furrowing his brow in contemplation of what to do. Sakaki was watching quietly, his gaze flickering to the director's annoyed expression while Tsubaki flicked through the boy's records.

Finally, the monstrous doors in the training room spread open as an auburn haired girl with her hair tied up into two tails stepped through, dressed in a standard fenrir operator uniform. She turned to her right and tapped the blonde on the shoulder. Johannes watched as the conversation was muted by both distance and glass. Hibari continued to speak to the teen, yet she seemed to have as much success as he did. She looked to where the three of them were then turned her gaze back at the teenager in front of her.

She leaned forward.

She tilted her head.

Johannes raised his eyebrow as he recognized how Hibari's features turned exasperated. The operator placed one hand on the transmitter placed in her ear.

"Sir?"

"Hibari," Johannes responded, "Have you figured out what seems to be the problem?"

"Yes, sir..."

...

"Well?"

"...He seems to be asleep, sir..."

...

...

...

...

"...What?"

"He's...snoring, sir." She removed her earpiece, "Listen."

_**Zzzzzzzz**_

Johannes could already feel the headache coming from this one.

**XxXxX**

Wolf carefully examined the strange red device fused with his wrist. The armlet was attached to his nerves now, able to be controlled as any other arm, leg or muscle. Essentially, it was part of him, and he was a part of it. The bias factor and oracle cells running through his veins were no longer separable from him – at least, not separable if he wanted to keep living. Now that he was a Gods Eater, losing his oracle cells, his bias factor or both at the same time would almost surely kill him.

Needless to say, he would like to avoid that as much as possible.

The red and black oversized bracelet would make putting on any clothes a complete annoyance due to its size – a good few inches of radius. The arm that it was grafted into was still quite numb, and he was told that it was a normal side effect from having the oracle cells injected into him for his very first time. A large circular opening was located on top of it, acting as a connecting network to his god arc and at the same time, a way to simplify the process of injecting him with his monthly Bias Factor.

Leaning back into the couch he sat on inside of the Den's lobby, the lips of the seventeen year old curled and frowned at the ceiling. He placed his left hand behind his head to shield it from the rusty protective railing behind him.

"Hey, want some gum?"

The boy sitting on the opposite end of him was a happy-go-lucky kinda guy. His wrist adorned the same armlet that was mended into Wolf's own, so he must have at least passed the examination as well.

Turning his head to the side, Wolf blinked at the redhead as the stranger smiled cheerily at his own blank face. The redhead didn't wait for his response, and started to dig into his pockets. Grimacing, he turned back and smiled sheepishly.

"Sorry, I think I just ate the last one." He reached out a hand, "I'm Kota. Kota Fujiki."

Wolf looked at the hand, then at the owner. He gripped the hand loosely, shaking it without any real strength before letting go just as fast.

"Wolf Arashi," the blonde of the two introduced himself, "...Nice to meet you."

"Likewise," If Kota thought his name was strange, it was expertly hidden underneath that care-free smile, "So, you a new recruit too?"

Wolf nodded.

"Cool. You look about my age, maybe a bit older. Doesn't matter though," Kota grinned cheekily, "I'm still your senior by a nanosecond."

The older teen (Wolf) looked strangely at the redhead. He tilted his head to the side as if confused, yet the still not-so-expressive look that was glued onto his features made the act seem like he was asking, 'why do I care' again and again. Kota, of course, was oblivious to it and Wolf let it stay that way as he went back to relaxing in the surprisingly comfortable couch.

"Stand up!"

Only to be interrupted by someone else.

He turned to the woman, and he could hear the ruffle of Kota's scarf as he did too. The woman in front seemed not to be in a joking mood, and was staring at them with one of the fiercest gazes either of them had ever seen.

"I said stand up!" She shouted at them, and both Wolf and Kota stood upright. Kota sent a glance to Wolf, as if asking 'what the hell' to his blonde companion, to which said blonde casually ignored.

"I'm on a tight schedule so I'll be keeping this short. My name is Tsubaki Amamiya, and I'm your advisor. This is your schedule. You'll both be undergoing a medical check-up, after which you will complete a full curriculum of basic physical training, basic combat training as well as weaponry and armory clinic," She listed off, eyes reading her clipboard's information.

"We've been the ones protecting you up until now, but from this day forward, you'll be the ones doing the protecting," their advisor glared at them, like she was daring them to reply in a negative fashion, "If you don't want to die over something stupid, than answer my every order with a yes, understood?"

Kota was sweating. Wolf looked bored.

"Answer me!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

"Yes..."

Tsubaki turned to Wolf, "Report to Dr. Sakaki's office by 1500 hours. That is all."

Without another word, the white clad advisor of the two rookies turned and walked away, climbing up the staircase and not even looking at where she was going. From what Wolf saw, she didn't have to. People moved out of her way in fear of bumping into her.

What a scary woman...

**XxXxX**

The elevator was something Wolf felt like he would never feel comfortable riding.

It wasn't its appearance. The white pristine walls were impeccably clean, and there was plenty of space if you consider the fact that it was only an elevator and that he was alone. Rather than that, he was uncomfortable due to the feeling of his intestines jiggling within his stomach. It made him feel nauseous, and the blonde had mentally added another reason to curse his motion sickness.

Thankfully, after a minute or so of fighting down the grimace that threatened to show, the lift released a pleasant ding as he arrived at his required floor. He tried not to seem too eager to get out of the lift. This was shown by the way he threw himself out of the doors, grabbing unto the edge of a wall and gasping for air, as if he'd just escaped from the clutches of a terrible beast.

Okay, so maybe he was...a little obvious...

"Er...you all right there?"

Not even turning to look at the voice, he simply raised his hand in a thumbs-up, though seeing as he was gasping like a kid having an asthma attack, he didn't know if it was completely comforting.

"Wolf?"

The blonde's sky blue eyes widened slightly in surprise, and he turned his gaze to the person who leaned over at him, a realizing expression that looked as if it were mixed in with a worried stare. The person in question was a girl. Her shoulder length hair was shockingly pink, and though there was a braid that lined the crown of her head, there was still enough strands to brush upon her thin shoulders. A leafy dress covered her chest up to just above her knees, with a black turtleneck and black leggings beneath it. Finally, a pair of white and golden trimmed boots adorned her feet.

"You're Wolf, right?" She asked again, shoving her face closer to his and forcing him to reel back.

"Yeah...er..." the new recruit raised an eyebrow, "Do I know you?"

Standing up in his whole 5'8 glory, the blonde casually noted that he was a few inches taller than her.

"It's me!" She piped, and Wolf tilted his head, questioningly.

"...Do I know you?" He asked again.

The girl's cheery smile was dropped and replaced by a pout, the girl puffing her cheeks out in obvious annoyance.

"Gah! You forgot! You forgot!" Beating on his chest with her fists, the blonde was immediately cornered into a wall, trying to placate the girl's angry tirade, "And I even gave you my ribbon as a remembrance! You forgot me! Idiot! Idiot! Idiot!"

Wolf blinked. Ribbon?

...

Lightbulb meet brain.

"Kanon?"

"Ah! You do remember!"

"Er...yeah," Absently rubbing his throbbing chest, the blonde nodded, "It's...been a long time."

"Mmm!" She nodded, still with that smile, "How've you been? Have you been eating right? Your hairstyle hasn't changed at all! You still have a soft face as well. Hey, are you a Gods Eater? You are, aren't y – mrph!"

Placing one finger on the girl's lips succeeded in silencing her, and Wolf stared still with a blank face, "Breath."

Kanon obliged.

"I'm gonna let go. Can you not talk my ear off?"

Kanon nodded.

Wolf took his finger off.

"It's been a long time!"

Wolf nodded, "How've you been?"

"All right," She said, placing her hands behind her back, "You?"

"Likewise. Your hair's shorter now, huh?"

"Yeah. It got in the way of training, so I had to get it cut."

"You're a Gods Eater now?"

Kanon puffed out her chest proudly, "Mmhmm! Private Medic Daiba!" She proclaimed, before sheepishly smiling at him, "But I haven't really been climbing the ranks much. Oh, do you still have that ribbon I gave you?"

Wolf looked away, "Yeah...I do."

"Really? Where?"

"Somewhere safe."

"What?" She stared scrutinizingly at him, "You lost it, didn't you?"

Wolf scowled, "No."

"Well, where is it?"

Wolf sighed and pulled up his left arm's sleeve where a plain white ribbon was tied just before his wrist. Kanon smiled at it then at him, and he turned away to hide the blush that threatened to sneak up on his face.

"Happy?" He said, pulling back his sleeve over it.

"Very," She replied, "So you passed the test! Are you here for the medical check-up?"

"Yeah. Could you tell me where Sakaki's office is?"

"Down the hall. It's the last door at the end. You should hurry up and go." Kanon jabbed her thumb at the direction, "Dr. Sakaki's a bit eccentric...but he's a nice person. I'm sure you'll like him."

Yes, because he and eccentric never seemed to butt heads.

"...Define eccentric," Wolf requested.

"Er..." Kanon looked away. Wolf tried not to take the silence as a bad thing.

"Ah!" the medic suddenly squealed, "I have to go! I have a patrol mission with the others!"

The pinkette turned to the lift and ran, entering the elevator and turning back to him, "I'm glad you kept the ribbon! I'll be back in a few hours! Let's have lunch and catch up, 'kay?"

Wolf nodded and the elevator doors closed.

A small smile crossed the blonde's usual apathy, yet it disappeared so quickly that any passerby would have mistaken it as a trick of their mind. The black clad teen turned and walked towards the door his friend had pointed to him, whistling a small tune.


	2. Socializing

He woke up to the sound of a heartbeat...an electronic heartbeat...but a heartbeat nonetheless.

Snapping his eyes open, Wolf stared vapidly at the beige ceiling of the Den's infirmary. Cold air bit into his bare torso, eliciting a shiver up his spine despite the covers strewn over his form. The blonde grunted and pushed himself up, pulling off the heartbeat sensor and throwing it away without much thought. The little plastic cup clattered quietly on the floor, and the machine by the blonde's bedside suddenly started to flatline.

He grimaced, flinching at the unpleasant racket. In the corner of his eye, the blonde spotted the black and purple design of his hoodie, grabbed it and put it on without a second thought. His boots were placed just by the foot of his bed, and he soon got to putting those back on as well.

Before he could accomplish his task, a mechanical swish of the Den's automatic doors alerted him to another's presence. Wolf snapped his head to the door, and noted the rather exasperated looking pink haired girl that stared at him, as if asking him 'Really? Haven't you learned anything?'

The blonde blinked twice at her...then set back to buckling his boots.

"Morning to you too," Kanon sarcastically said, rolling her eyes. The girl approached the still irritably beeping machine and turned it off with the flick of a switch.

"How'd I end up here?" Wolf asked.

"Something went wrong with your medical check up," Kanon replied, "I don't know the details so you'll have to ask Dr. Sakaki yourself, but there was apparently a small problem in the integration of the oracle cells and bias factor into your body. He said he already fixed whatever it was, so you don't have to worry about turning into a rampaging monster. You're only here since the Director didn't want to take chances and had you put on observation until you woke up."

"How long have I been out?"

"Mmm..." Kanon hummed thoughtfully, "...a day and a half, I guess."

Wolf's eyes widened, "What?"

"Dr. Sakaki gave you a powerful anaesthetic. I'm surprised you woke up today actually. You should have been asleep for a whole three days... then again, you **are** a new-type."

"I see..."

...

"So...everything's fine now?" Wolf asked.

Kanon slammed her hand unto the heartbeat monitor, "Hell no!"

Surprised by the loud shout that originated from the pinkette, Wolf flinched, "Huh?"

"Do you know how worried I was?!" Boosted by an odd mix of anger and genuine concern, the pink haired medic strode to his bedside, grabbed him by the collar of his black and purple hoodie and lifted him up with a surprising amount of strength inside of her frail looking arms. Wolf stared blankly at her enraged expression as his feet were lifted off the ground, mouth gaping in confusion, "I come back to the Den and head to the cafeteria expecting you to actually come by! I waited there until nine, you ass! NINE P.M! I was hungry as hell, and I still waited for you to get your lazy hide inside before I thought about eating! I never even got my rations because I bolted to your room the second I heard you got sent here from Paylor!"

"And now I find you about to pull a disappearing act without even alerting anyone! Were you built to be this inconsiderate or were you born like that?!"

"Er..." Angry Kanon was scary Kanon..."I'm...sorry?"

Kanon harrumphed, slackened her arms and allowed him to stand on his own feet. Without another word, the pinkette turned and walked out of the door, storming past another Gods Eater who flinched the moment the unfortunate sap accidentally made eye contact with the pinkette.

Wolf opened and closed his mouth several times, trying to make sense of what happened. Eventually he gave up, grabbed his belongings from the nearby table, pocketed them and left the infirmary, looking like someone had turned the confines of his sub-consciousness into Jell – O.

**XxXxX**

Kota stared curiously at the vapid blonde that sat alone on one of the cafeteria tables, poking his food absentmindedly. His fellow recruit's face seemed to morph every five seconds, going from confused, exasperated, then angry, after which came rueful which then cycled back to confused. The redhead tried not to think that the blue eyed boy was strange, but due to the fact that the guy was shaking off one emotion after another without any foreseeable cause, the redhead couldn't quite contain those thoughts as well as he would've liked.

Frankly, no one could blame him.

Still, the guy looked like he needed a friend – sitting alone as he was – and Kota was nothing if not friendly...sometimes even bordering creepy stalker level. Cautiously, he approached the troubled looking blonde.

"You alright there, man?" the redhead asked.

"Huh? Oh...yeah," Wolf – at least that's what Kota thought his name was – replied, almost reflexively, "Just fine."

"Oookaaay..." Kota drawled, as if he were talking to a crazy person, "Hey, you're the guy I met a few days ago, right? Wolf, was it?"

Wolf nodded, silently prodding the strange... thing on his plate. Kota supposed it could be seen and called as food...if one were either an aragami or an almost starved to death living being. The purple...er... dish... didn't so much as sit on the plate as much as it did squat malevolently, hating all and being hated by all. Though Wolf didn't seem as troubled by the food as much he was by the thoughts swirling inside his head...

After all, he lacked the proper amount of visible disgust to say it was the reason he looked so bothered.

"Uh...dude..." Kota snapped his fingers in front of the blonde, "You there?"

"Yeah..." He replied after a moment, "Do you need something...Kota, right?"

The redhead nodded, "No, I don't really have any business with you. Really, you just look...out of it."

"...I'm fine," he replied, "thanks for the concern though."

An awkward silence followed, Kota fidgeting uncomfortably and Wolf oblivious to it as he poked the thing on his plate, forcing the strangely jelly-like substance on the ceramic to jiggle ...or writhe in anger at being prodded, depending on how you saw it. Kota suddenly spoke up, trying to break the awful silence between them.

"Oh, by the way, I haven't seen you in any of the training programs. Are you receiving special tutoring or something?"

Wolf raised a thin eyebrow, "...We have training programs?"

**XxXxX**

Yes, training programs.

Now that Wolf was standing in the middle of what looked to be a class of twenty or so newbie Gods Eaters, his advisor's last words came back to him. Tsubaki actually had told him there would be basic combat training, basic physical training and something about weaponry and armor. The blonde supposed he had forgotten about those in the haze of his peaceful, yet not-so-natural slumber.

Having been in what could be considered as a short-term medically induced coma, Wolf of course, had missed a single session for each of those classes and had to then track tsubaki down to acquire his schedule. His first subject turned out to be basic combat training, and would commence at nine A.M sharp. Wolf had then glanced at a nearby clock and come to realize it was already ten minutes past the scheduled time. Tsubaki had thankfully agreed to walk him to what would be his classroom of sorts...

Training room 2-C was an average practical room. The place was certainly big enough for a class, spanning the size of something like half a soccer field. There was plenty of room to run, practice and most importantly, fight. It was hard to believe Fenrir had been able to build the massive training room underground. He had heard that the inner workings of the Den were buried, and its surface took up nearly half the outer ghettos while digging as deep as a few kilometres.

He hadn't believed that before now, but looking at the extensive field and high ceiling that covered the place overhead, Wolf could actually start to think of it as fact.

In the middle of the room, a group of people, with the youngest a thirteen year old boy while the oldest being a man around mid-twenties, was standing in attention, facing a stern faced and greying veteran .

The instructor, as Wolf wouldn't believe the man was a novice from the way he walked and held himself, was probably an aged soldier. Greying hair was pushed back in a standard army cut, and the man's black shirt and black baggy pants looked worn, like it had been brought to a war and out, gaining more than a few stitches along the way as well. The instructor also had a small mantle that reached up to a little below his chest. With one of his hands lying on the middle, the cloth was acting as a sort of sling, though Wolf didn't see any injury. It might have been a quirk, but considering the man looked like a war veteran, it was safer to say it was more of a way to keep the arm he could no longer move from swinging around the place and accidentally slapping someone.

Tsubaki had walked up to him, exchanged a few words and just as quickly left, leaving him in the middle of the class as they wondered who the new kid was.

"Alright!" the large man – now that Wolf was standing closer to him, he realized he was nearly a head shorter than the guy – shouted and silenced the chatting rookies, though there was one Wolf noticed was sneering at him, "We've got a new baby bird with us today. This here is Fenrir's first new-type," the old man turned to the blonde, "Go on and say hi to the kiddies."

Wolf blinked once at the instructor, then once at his fellow rookies. He must have looked completely lost as a few snickers emerged from the group. The blonde mentally shrugged and raised a hand, greeting the others with a nonchalant, "Yo."

The instructor slapped him over the head, "Again; this time, do it properly."

Rubbing his sore head, Wolf tried a second time, "Wolf Arashi...nice to meet you all."

"Right," Shaking his head in exasperation, their teacher made a motion for him to join his classmates, "For the sake of the little ball of energy there, I'll introduce myself again. The name's Gen Momota. I was a Fenrir soldier back in the day when god arcs were still only pistols and machine guns – none of that fancy ass oracle and bias factor injections just yet. But enough of that – right now, I'm your teacher for basic combat training."

"Today, we're going to have ourselves a little skill assessment." Clearing his throat, the man motioned to a bin located in the corner of the room, "I want each of you to grab a shinai from there. Each of those practice swords were crafted with different forms of material. You could say they all weigh differently. See if you can find the one you're most comfortable with. After that, I want you all to meet me at the sparring mat for some light roughhousing."

The students buzzed excitedly at the revelation that violence would so soon come to them. A few of the rookies even ran straight to the bin, grabbing at the closest thing they could get their hands on and swinging it with about as much precision and grace as a gangster on an all-time high. Wolf himself didn't look like he cared all that much, and had been the last one to grab his own shinai with the others already moving to the mat. He snatched the closest one he could and followed suit, ignoring the impatient looks his colleagues were giving him.

The training mat wasn't really a mat. Instead, it was a large, circular field that was marked with white paint. It reminded Wolf of a martial arts competition floor actually, and the blonde couldn't help but feel that this was a bit of a cliché.

His fellow students had all rounded up outside of the mat whilst their instructor stood in the center, his one good hand resting at his hip and his stance rigid.

"Rules are simple, and we only have three," Gen raised a finger, "Rule number one! When I say start, you start only at that moment. If you try and attack even a second earlier, I'll have you put in a detention cell for a week!" He raised another, "Rule number two! No stepping out of the mat or you'll be automatically disqualified." Finally, he raised a third digit, "Rule number three! There are only two ways to win in a spar. You either force your opponent out of the mat or deal a solid strike with your shinai. Fists and kicks don't count as a winning blow but feel free to knock a tooth out with one or two of them. Any questions?"

No one said anything.

"Right, then let's commence," He walked out of the mat, digging into his mantle and bringing out a folded piece of paper, "You, late guy. You can go first."

Wolf blinked owlishly then made his way to the center of the ring, shinai gripped loosely in one hand.

Gen gave him a once over, then turned his eyes back to the class roster, his sight settling on a random name, "Kensei Kagemune."

A brown haired individual stepped forward with a slacking posture. His back was leaning backward in a slouch, but even then he was at least a good few inches taller than the admittedly shorter blonde. Both of his large hands were shoved into his pockets and a smile...no, a sneer was more like it, seemed to be plastered onto his rat of a face. His messy hair was set in a short tail that fell until the small of his back. A pair of shorts and a baggy, unzipped orange jacket along with sneakers made it so that he seemed to be quite the city boy.

"Get to the ring," Gen nudged his head to Wolf's general direction.

Kensei looked over the blonde like he was sizing him up. Judging by the scoff that escaped the man's lips, he didn't seem to think of Wolf as much of a threat.

The blonde himself...well, he didn't even glance at Kensei.

"One strike and then I expect you to back off, got it?" Gen repeated as they took their positions, "Get ready," Kagemune held his shinai in a stance one would expect to see in a samurai movie – knees slightly bent and sword held in front – while Wolf just held it loosely beside him, body relaxed and his free hand stuck in the confines of his pocket.

Gen gave a scrutinizing stare at Wolf, "I said get ready,"

Wolf nodded but didn't so much as take out the hand in his pocket.

Gen clicked his tongue, "Whatever, brat," He raised his hand.

"Start!"

Kensei grinned and charged, bringing his wooden sword over his head and putting all his force in a single, wild vertical slash. Wolf watched the vagrant's blind warpath, fingers twitching in anticipation. Outside of the ring, Gen scoffed. There was no way a move as blinded as that would hit anyone. Even a rookie could see past that and at least bring his own shinai up in a defence. There was absolutely no chance –

_WHAP_

Or whatever sound or onomatopoeia would be heard from wood smacking flesh and bone.

Gen stared incredulously at the grounded form of the new-type as he laid on his back, shinai clattering out of his grasp and hand still in a pocket. Kensei stood, smirking over the downed blonde despite Wolf's own uncaring stare. There was a small cut on the new-type's forehead, blood oozing out of the wound and forming a small puddle at the side of his head. Kensei looked at his handiwork again before he gave a smug laugh and turned away, shinai resting on his shoulder and declarations of an easy win shouted at the top of his lungs. Gen ignored that and stared at the defeated participant.

"Oi, new-type," Gen called as Wolf sat up and turned that stare to his instructor, "head to the infirmary and get that patched up."

Wolf tilted his head to the side, as if he were contemplating it before he gave a nod and moved to the door, walking out of the training area before the others even noticed.

Gen stared at the door the new-type had left through, before turning his gaze to the discarded shinai the blonde had left behind. Moving over to it and taking it in his hands, he noted it was one of the balanced ones, weighing a few kilograms but hard enough to survive quite a few uses. He frowned, replaying the short skirmish that had happened beforehand.

How the new-type's eyes seemed to track his opponent's shoulders, legs and hands, watching as every muscle twitched.

How the rookie's fingers suddenly tensed, and how his eyes seemed to sharpen at the incoming blow.

How the blonde ever so slightly tilted his head back so that the force of the swing wouldn't deal any serious injury.

Gen threw an angry stare at the metal doors of the training room.

"That bastard threw the fight..."

**XxXxX**

"What happened to your head?"

Kanon's worried expression came into Wolf's view as the blonde casually sipped on a soda. The new-type gave her a glance before returning his gaze to the blank space he had been staring at before, choosing to answer the pinkette in a low, even tone that was, of course, used to spout utter bullocks.

"Got into a training accident."

The girl raised a delicate eyebrow, crossing her arms with a look of disbelief at his flimsy excuse, no matter how plausible it actually sounded.

"You don't look like the type to get injured from a few laps."

Wolf shook his head, "Sparring. Shinai hit my head."

"Why didn't you come to the medic bay?"

"I had the supplies so I just wrapped myself up," He jabbed a thumb at the small band-aid on his forehead, "It wasn't anything major. There was no need."

Kanon sighed, "You just wanted to cut from your training classes, didn't you? So instead of going into the infirmary where after receiving treatment, you would've been escorted back to your class, you decided to just lay low."

Wolf looked away, but his accompanying pinkette saw his lips twitch up.

"You're a lot lazier than I remember, Wolf."

"I guess," the blonde shrugged nonchalantly.

"Listen, I know they may sound like a drag, but you've still gotta attend the classes." Kanon crossed her arms, walking in front of him and frowning at his blank face, "Basics are important, after all. You'll need them if you wanna live longer in this job."

"Okay."

"Do you understand what I'm saying? You need to attend the classes, understand? I don't want you dying on your first mission."

"Okay."

"...You're not listening, are you?"

"Okay."

A long silence descended after that. Kanon's brow furrowed in anger at being dismissed so casually, and she stared at the bored looking blonde with a darkening fire in her eyes. Wolf seemed to realize that he hadn't been hearing anything for a while and turned his attention to the pinkette...where her glaring posture seemed to make him realize he had made a mistake he would no doubt find himself regretting.

"I said the wrong thing, didn't I?"

Kanon sighed and took a seat beside him.

"Sorry. My nagging must be annoying."

"A little," Wolf admitted. Kanon huffed.

"I'm just worried for you. A life as a Gods Eater...isn't as easy as most people think."

Most people ended up thinking a god arc made them indestructible. Most people ended up thinking oracle cells and a bias factor supply would mean they were special, and wouldn't so easily die in the face of danger. Most people were naive idiots who were overconfident in their skills. Most people either woke up from that foolish dream or were served on a silver platter as an aragami's next appetizer.

Kanon sincerely hoped Wolf wasn't like most people.

"You worry too much," Wolf muttered.

The pinkette smiled slightly at the blonde, "Is that Wolf speak for 'Please don't worry'?"

Wolf glanced at her, ocean meeting sky before the new-type lowered his head and looked away again. Kanon giggled in response, raising a hand and petting the slightly younger male's head like a mother would do a child. The quiet boy didn't make a sound, even as she then began to ruffle his spiky, golden mess of a head.

"Aww, how sweet."

The sarcastic tone and the demeaning voice was almost enough to make Wolf narrow his eyes.

Almost.

Instead, the blonde turned his head to the orange jacket wearing man approaching them with bearing shoulders, like he was trying to make his already six foot plus height bigger and more intimidating.

Kanon stood and raised an eyebrow as Wolf rolled his eyes and leaned further back into his seat, probably hoping that the guy would get bored and leave on his own volition. Sadly, no luck as Kensei approached him without any doubt in the sneer on his ugly visage.

"Can I help you?" the sole medic of the trio asked.

"Zip it, girly," the man said. Though considering how short and rude it was, 'said' probably wasn't as appropriate as 'insulted', "How's the head injury, blondie?"

Wolf turned his gaze to the towering man and stared for a long while, looking like an alien had landed in front of him, made a few indistinguishable warbles and was wondering if it was trying to communicate with him. Finally, after a minute or two, the blonde Gods Eater raised an eyebrow.

"Do I know you?"

That certainly threw the bear of a man off.

Kensei spluttered in disbelief at the fact that the blonde had so easily and quickly forgotten about him. The rat faced punk then regained his composure and replaced his gape with a smug smirk.

"Name's Kensei. You already forgot? Heh, guess I hit you a little too hard back in the spar. Can you even remember your own name now?"

"Oh, yeah you," Wolf's eyes actually looked like he had recognized something, but there was something in his orbs that seemed so...mischievously wrong that Kanon had a hard time believing he was being completely honest to anyone in the vicinity, "Sorry. You just looked so plain, ordinary and like one of those tv series background characters that I completely forgot about you the moment I left the room."

"B-Background character?"

"Yeah," Wolf nodded, sagely, "You know, like those guys that are seen in one or two episodes then are completely forgotten in the next? You're like the pizza delivery guy, or the newspaper boy, or a thug that gets beaten up by the protagonist to save the main heroine," Wolf faked a look of contemplation, "I think my little sister once called guys like you 'Parsley'."

"P-parsley?!" Indignant and angered, the brown haired man grabbed a handful of Wolf's hoodie and pulled the shorter blonde face-to-face. Kanon moved to intervene but a subtle wink on Wolf's part stopped her, albeit reluctantly.

"Who the hell are you calling parsley, punk?!"

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to insult you...er...what was your name again?"

Kensei turned red faced.

"Karl? Kennedy? Kelvin?" Wolf turned to Kanon, "Help me out here, Kanon. What was his name again? It's something that starts with a 'K'."

Kensei's hand curled into a fist.

Kanon smirked mischievously, "I don't know, Katie?"

She really should have seen the punch coming.

Large, meaty knuckles aimed to knock into her jaw, Kanon barely having enough time for her eyes to widen before the fist could impact. She closed her eyes, awaiting the inevitable pain.

And waited...

And waited...

And waited...

Moments without the feeling of a bruising jaw urged her to peek open one eye. The little pupil that opened to look found the hand of Kensei, still curled into a fist hovering inches before her, and a smaller hand holding it tightly at the wrist, stopping it from fully connecting with her nose. The pinkette looked at Wolf, the blonde glaring daggers at his equally smoldering fellow rookie, even as his fingers curled tightly around the man's offending arm.

"Don't touch her." The words were short, even and emotionless. But that was the reason they were so terrifying to hear. Devoid of anger, and empty of care, as if he could rip your heart out and not even notice. Sky blue eyes had suddenly been overtaken by a flash freeze, leaving only icy spheres to gaze coldly at the man who bore the punishment of earning that gaze.

Kensei tried to pull his fist away, but the blonde must have been stronger than what his slender looking build told because Wolf didn't budge an inch. In fact, the new-type started to curl his hands tighter, and Kanon was sure that after a moment of watching her friend's palm contract, she could hear Kensei's muscles and bones straining under the pressure. Judging by the pained wince that managed to escape the man's lips, it definitely wasn't a trick of the ear.

"Let me go," Kensei must have tried to sound threatening, but it actually sounded more like a whine than a growl. Nonetheless, Wolf shoved the larger man's arm back at him, sending Kensei reeling back and cradling his wrist.

"You think you're tough shit? You think you're so great, punk? Training room, now!"

Wolf sighed. Fuel, meet fire.

**XxXxX**

Apparently, Kensei screaming about how he would beat the crap out of the blonde had attracted a lot of attention... though none of that attention seemed to be in any hurry to break up the fight. Rather, they looked to be eager to see violence in a not-so-much controlled environment.

Wolf held the shinai he had chosen this morning. For once, the blonde was actually gripping the weapon instead of letting it hang loosely from his fingers. His not-so-little opponent held his own wooden sword in his hands, a sneer on his face as he glared at Wolf's own empty and apathetic gaze.

The training room they were in was filled with a few dozen Gods Eaters that were either bored with nothing else to do, or general hormonal teens that just wanted to see two other people beat the crap out of each other, placing a wager or two on either participant in the process.

Kanon looked worriedly at Wolf as the blonde himself stared at Kensei as he just stood there with a hand in his pocket and a practice sword in the other. He didn't even seem like he was going to fight, even with the shinai in his palm. Kensei, on the other hand, looked positively blood thirsty.

"Say goodbye to your girlfriend, pretty boy. Though when I'm done with you, there won't be anything pretty to look at."

Wolf scoffed. Banter: a hindrance only if your opponent was actually prone to anger. But as you may have noticed, the new-type standing in the middle of the practice ring made a cucumber look scorching in comparison to his lackadaisical whims.

Not bothering with saying anything to dignify that, the blonde cocked his head in a way that beckoned for the larger man to hurry it up and fight already. Kensei was all too eager to oblige and had charged at him, shinai raised up and a war cry rushing out of his lungs. Wolf watched as the much larger man cleared the distance between them, and Kensei grinned as he predicted that things would play out much the same as it did that morning.

When his shinai swept empty air that was when he had been confused.

Wolf had disappeared. He didn't fade, he vanished. One moment he was there, then Kensei blinked and he just was...gone.

He looked around, thinking that the blonde might have somehow run and hidden into the crowd, but all of them were staring at him. All of them were gawking, open mouthed and looking as confounded as he was.

"Where the fuck did he go?!"

_Thunk_

The feeling of a small, almost unnoticeable nudge on the back of his neck was enough to make Kensei jump away, turning around and waving his shinai like a madman at the ever-blank faced new-type.

"What the...how did you-?!"

The answer was simple, actually and it was mentioned already. Kanon had seen it all.

Kensei had blinked.

No, now that she replayed it over and over, it wasn't just the moment Kensei had blinked. It was the moment he had raised his sword. The large man raised his sword, obscuring his view of his opponent for a second with that ridiculously baggy jacket just as Wolf dashed under his guard and vision and rolled out of harm's way. The new-type had done an enhanced version of it, and at a much higher level than normal humans, but in the end, all he did was pull a very, very, VERY fast one over the brute.

And they couldn't believe just how fast it was.

It was a burst of movement. Speed that none of them had ever seen in a rookie, and had only witnessed from the best of the Gods Eaters: Lindow, Soma and a handful of others. Wolf was a bit slower and a bit less refined than them in the way he had dashed and flowed into a roll, but the technique was surely there and he certainly had the qualities to match it.

Kensei reeled back, yet Wolf once more dashed forward. The blonde swung his shinai from his left, and his larger opponent backpedalled, barely pulling up a guard as the sword flew into motion.

Only the strike had never been to strike his head.

The fake sword fell out of Wolf's right hand, yet was just as quickly snatched into his free, left hand. Kensei reacted too late to the advance feint as the wooden shinai of the blonde impacted with his knee with a sickening crack. Kensei screamed in pain and swung blindly, yet Wolf avoided the sloppy swings and danced around the larger man's rage until he was directly behind the berserker. With a swiftness derived from practice and experience, the blonde striked the back side of his neck, opposite of Kensei's adam's apple. The man fell forward and unto his injured knee, and with another pained whimper, fell to the floor on his side.

Wolf swung his shinai in a wide arc, not at the downed giant but at air as if he were dislodging blood from an actual blade. With a lazy glance at his whimpering opponent, the blonde sighed, put one hand back into the vestiges of his pocket while the other nonchalantly tossed aside the wooden sword. Kanon remembered to breathe at the same time her legs moved to catch up with the departing blonde.

The fight didn't last more than half a minute.

**XxXxX**

"He's definitely trained," Gen murmured to the younger commander at his side as both of them watched a couple of medics tow away the man that had the unfortunate fate to have had a personal and close up meeting with a wooden sword. "He aimed for that guy's bone like a pro. It probably shattered the whole joint...I doubt he'll ever walk without a limp again, much less remain a Gods Eater. Talk about merciless."

Lindow chuckled, "No doubt. Kid's got a mean look to him," the first unit commander put a thoughtful hand on his shaved jaw, "You think he's ready for a mission?"

"Kid's good, yeah," Gen slooked at Lindow with a half-lidded stare, "But he ain't exactly a team player. He looks like he needs a few lessons in socialization. Planet knows you don't need another Soma."

"Eh, Soma's not such a bad kid," Lindow shrugged, "Anyway, if it's teamwork, I'm sure I can work something out."

"Work something out?" Gen raised an eyebrow, "And what would that 'something' be?"

In response to that, Lindow smiled.

It was not a good smile.


End file.
